List of NEVER Openweight Champions
The NEVER Openweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. NEVER is an acronym of the terms "New Blood", "Evolution", "Valiantly", "Eternal", and "Radical" and was a NJPW-promoted series of events, which featured younger up-and-coming talent and outside wrestlers not signed to the promotion.[1][2] The project was officially announced on July 12, 2010,[2] and held its first event on August 24, 2010.[3]
Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won as a result of a scripted match. There have been twenty reigns shared among 12 wrestlers with one vacancy. Masato Tanaka was the first champion in the title's history.[4] He also holds the record for the longest reign in the title's history, at 314 days. Michael Elgin's only reign of 8 days is the shortest in the title's history. Tomohiro Ishii holds the record for most reigns with the title, being a four-time champion. Taichi is the current champion in his first reign, having defeated Hirooki Goto for the title on September 17, 2018, at Destruction in Beppu 9.17.
Title history
No. | Overall reign number |
---|---|
Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
Days | Number of days held |
Defenses | Number of successful defenses |
+ | Current reign is changing daily |
No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Defenses | ||||
1 | Masato Tanaka | November 19, 2012 | Shodai NEVER Musabetsu Kyu Oza Kettei Tournament Final | Tokyo | 1 | 314 | 4 | Tanaka defeated Karl Anderson in the finals of a sixteen-man tournament to become the inaugural champion. | [4] |
2 | Tetsuya Naito | September 29, 2013 | Destruction | Kobe | 1 | 135 | 2 | Naito's Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Championship challenge rights certificate was also on the line. | [5] |
3 | Tomohiro Ishii | February 11, 2014 | The New Beginning in Osaka | Osaka | 1 | 138 | 4 | [6] | |
4 | Yujiro Takahashi | June 29, 2014 | Kizuna Road 2014 | Tokyo | 1 | 106 | 1 | [7] | |
5 | Tomohiro Ishii | October 13, 2014 | King of Pro-Wrestling | Tokyo | 2 | 83 | 1 | [8] | |
6 | Togi Makabe | January 4, 2015 | Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome | Tokyo | 1 | 41 | 0 | [9] | |
— | Vacated | February 14, 2015 | — | — | — | — | — | The title was vacated due to Makabe being sidelined with influenza. | [10] |
7 | Tomohiro Ishii | February 14, 2015 | The New Beginning in Sendai | Sendai | 3 | 74 | 0 | Ishii defeated Tomoaki Honma to win the vacant title. | [11] |
8 | Togi Makabe | April 29, 2015 | Wrestling Hinokuni | Mashiki | 2 | 166 | 2 | [12] | |
9 | Tomohiro Ishii | October 12, 2015 | King of Pro-Wrestling | Tokyo | 4 | 84 | 1 | [13] | |
10 | Katsuyori Shibata | January 4, 2016 | Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome | Tokyo | 1 | 120 | 3 | [14] | |
11 | Yuji Nagata | May 3, 2016 | Wrestling Dontaku 2016 | Fukuoka | 1 | 47 | 0 | [15] | |
12 | Katsuyori Shibata | June 19, 2016 | Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall | Osaka | 2 | 139 | 3 | [16] | |
13 | Evil | November 5, 2016 | Power Struggle | Osaka | 1 | 10 | 0 | [17] | |
14 | Katsuyori Shibata | November 15, 2016 | Wrestling World 2016 in Singapore | Singapore | 3 | 50 | 0 | [18] | |
15 | Hirooki Goto | January 4, 2017 | Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome | Tokyo | 1 | 113 | 3 | [19] | |
16 | Minoru Suzuki | April 27, 2017 | Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2017: Aki no Kuni Sengoku Emaki | Hiroshima | 1 | 252 | 4 | [20] | |
17 | Hirooki Goto | January 4, 2018 | Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome | Tokyo | 2 | 156 | 3 | This was a Hair vs. Hair match. | [21] |
18 | Michael Elgin | June 9, 2018 | Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall | Osaka | 1 | 8 | 0 | This was a Three-way match also including Taichi. | |
19 | Hirooki Goto | June 17, 2018 | Kizuna Road 2018 | Tokyo | 3 | 92 | 1 | [22] | |
20 | Taichi | September 17, 2018 | Destruction in Beppu 9.17 | Beppu | 1 | 31+ | 0 |
Combined reigns
As of October 18, 2018.
† | Indicates the current champion |
---|
Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns |
Combined defenses |
Combined days |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Tomohiro Ishii | 4 | 6 | 379 |
2 | Hirooki Goto | 3 | 7 | 361 |
3 | Masato Tanaka | 1 | 4 | 314 |
4 | Katsuyori Shibata | 3 | 6 | 309 |
5 | Minoru Suzuki | 1 | 4 | 252 |
6 | Togi Makabe | 2 | 2 | 207 |
7 | Tetsuya Naito | 1 | 2 | 135 |
8 | Yujiro Takahashi | 1 | 1 | 106 |
9 | Yuji Nagata | 1 | 0 | 47 |
10 | Taichi † | 1 | 0 | 31+ |
11 | Evil | 1 | 0 | 10 |
12 | Michael Elgin | 1 | 0 | 8 |
See also
References
- ↑ Caldwell, James (October 5, 2012). "News items: Velvet Sky launches clothing line, Details on Nash's next int'l tour, NJPW introducing new title". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved October 27, 2012.
- 1 2 Nextジェネレーション育成 新プロジェクト「NEVER」シリーズがスタート!!. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). July 12, 2010. Archived from the original on December 28, 2010. Retrieved October 27, 2012.
- ↑ "NEVER.1". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on December 28, 2010. Retrieved October 27, 2012.
- 1 2 東京・Shibuya-AX ~初代NEVER無差別級王座決定トーナメント Final~. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on November 22, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- ↑ "Destruction". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on October 2, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
- ↑ "The New Beginning in Osaka". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
- ↑ "Kizuna Road 2014". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 29, 2014. Retrieved June 29, 2014.
- ↑ "King of Pro-Wrestling". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved October 13, 2014.
- ↑ Wrestle Kingdom 9 in 東京ドーム. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on January 4, 2015. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
- ↑ 【お詫びとお知らせ】真壁刀義選手がインフルエンザのため、2月14日仙台大会欠場。“NEVER王座決定戦”本間vs石井が緊急決定. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). February 14, 2015. Archived from the original on February 14, 2015. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
- ↑ "The New Beginning in Sendai". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on February 14, 2015. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
- ↑ レスリング火の国. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on May 1, 2015. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
- ↑ "King of Pro-Wrestling". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on October 14, 2015. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
- ↑ Wrestle Kingdom 10 in 東京ドーム. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on January 7, 2016. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
- ↑ レスリングどんたく 2016. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on May 5, 2016. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
- ↑ "Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on August 8, 2016. Retrieved June 19, 2016.
- ↑ 戦国炎舞 -Kizna- Presents Power Struggle. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on November 5, 2016. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
- ↑ "Wrestling World 2016 in Singapore". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved November 15, 2016.
- ↑ 戦国炎舞 -Kizna- Presents Wrestle Kingdom 11 in 東京ドーム. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved January 4, 2017.
- ↑ Road to レスリングどんたく 2017 ~安芸の国 戦国絵巻~. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved April 27, 2017.
- ↑ ブシモ 5th Anniversary Wrestle Kingdom 12 in 東京ドーム. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved January 4, 2018.
- ↑ http://www.njpw.co.jp/152304